Author John Straley at home in Sitka. “I don’t like stories where the detective resolves things by going on a killing spree,” says Straley. Of his fictional private eye, Cecil Younger, Straley says “he’s kind of a wimp, but he makes the hard decisions when he has to.” (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

SOHO Press in New York will publish the eighth installment in the Cecil Younger Investigations series this December 7. Titled So Far And Good, the novel is a standalone sequel to Baby’s First Felony, which came out in 2019.

KCAW’s Robert Woolsey recently visited author John Straley in his writing studio overlooking Sitka Sound to discuss the latest misadventures of his fictional private eye Cecil Younger, to hear Straley’s plans for a new book inspired by his wife, the noted marine biologist Jan Straley — and to learn why the author keeps a custom-built yellow cedar coffin in his office.